This Lifetime Movie Brings The Family Drama

Oh boy, is there some major family drama on the way in Lifetime's upcoming Saturday night movie premiere Killing Mommy. But the title of this film, which is also known as Deadly Daughters, should give you a clue that the clan at the center of this movie is not one, big happy family. So has the family at the center of it all existed in real life, and is Killing Mommy a true story?

Well, let's look at the synopsis of the film provided on Lifetime's website for some insight into the matter, shall we?:

Julianna and Deborah are identical twins. Julianna, close to her wealthy mom Eve, pursues her studies in fashion design while living [a] fabulous entitled life-- supported by her trust fund. Deborah, however, still devastated by the accidental death of their father, has grown resentful and estranged from her family, living on the edge and battling drug and alcohol addictions. When Eve announces to the twins that she's about to re-marry, she has no idea what she has triggered in her daughter. Deborah's rage against her family explodes and puts everyone in danger-- including her mother. But nothing is as it seems in this dysfunctional family.

There's no mention of Killing Mommy being based on a true story in the above summary or in a similar, albeit more salacious, film synopsis found on the website of the film's production company Reel One Entertainment. What's more, Killing Mommy is not included in Lifetime's list of films based on true stories, which is where the network features many of the titles it it has aired that have been inspired by real events or people. When Lifetime broadcasts movies that are based on true stories, it usually makes a note of that, so that means Killing Mommy is probably a work of fiction.

However, the movie does deal with a similar theme as another recent film, 2014's Perfect Sisters, which details the aftermath of two sisters murdering their alcoholic and drug-addicted mother by filling her with pills and drowning her. Perfect Sisters is based on a book by former Toronto Star reporter Bob Mitchell called The Class Project: How to Kill a Mother: The True Story of Canada's Infamous Bathtub Girls. The book chronicles the 2003 murder of an alcoholic mother in Mississauga, Canada by her two teenage daughters, who gave her booze and Tylenol No.3s before drowning her in the bathtub and eventually being convicted of her murder, a Toronto Star review of Perfect Sisters from April 2014 details.

But as you know from being an avid entertainment consumer, the family dynamic often provides inspiration for movies, and plenty of other films have exhibited a similar extreme sibling rivalry and/or matricide as those that are found in Killing Mommy.

Similar movies have even aired on Lifetime before. Killing Daddy follows a daughter who has been hell-bent on killing her father for years after suspecting that he was responsible for her mother's suicide and getting revenge on her sister for siding with their dad since the tragedy occurred when they were kids.

There was also a film called Deadly Sibling Rivalry , which is about exactly what it sounds like. This Lifetime movie tells the story of identical twin sisters with an intense rivalry, one of whom becomes incapacitated during a car accident and the other decides to suffocate her and put her in a comatose state. She then assumes her identity, naturally.

Of course, movies featuring violent sibling rivalries (The Lion King, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Godfather Part II) and deadly mommy issues (Carrie, Psycho, Throw Momma From the Train) abound outside of Lifetime in major Hollywood movies, too. Hopefully, your real-life family is much more peaceful than these on-screen ones.

Image: Reel One Entertainment